§ Mr. BayleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list(a) the consultants, (b) the tasks for which they were employed and (c) the payments made to them from the budget of her Department in (i) 1992–93 and (ii) 1993–94.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Department spent £18,398,000 for 1992–93 and £15,933,037 for 1993–94 from running costs on consultancy. Information on national health service consultancy expenditure is not available centrally.
Details of the consultants employed by the Department and the tasks performed for 1992–93 were provided to the efficiency unit as part of its scrutiny on the Government's use of external consultants, copies of which will be placed in the Library. For reasons of confidentiality, and in order to achieve value for money in the future, we are unable to list the specific costs of the consultancies concerned and the amounts paid as this would breach contractual agreements and jeopardise future value for money. Information is not held for 1993–94 and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.